Council Meeting Tonight

Tonight’s City Council Meeting starts at 6:30 pm at 421 Main Street. The meeting agenda can be found here.

Of particular interest on tonight’s agenda are:

(1) Consideration of a draft social host ordinance that would impose liability on persons hosting, or responsible for, events on private property at which alcohol is possessed and consumed by persons under the age of 21. This is one aspect of the Clean and Safe program advocated by the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Chico Business Association. The agenda report linked below clarifies who is a responsible party under the ordinance; discusses enforcement, prosecution, and fines; identifies four exceptions to the ordinance; and sets forth a process for cost recovery. If you are a landlord, this ordinance may affect you, so please read the report and follow the hearings and outcome to make certain you are aware of your rights and responsibilities. (Draft_Social_Host_Ordinance)

(3) Sunshining of tentative labor agreements for four of the City’s bargaining groups. If you intend to have your opinion considered in the Council’s decision making, the best time to address the Council would be at tonight’s meeting. The next step will be to have the agreements put on the agenda for Council approval, and in our opinion, the likelihood of them being amended at that point in the process will be severely diminished. Red-lined versions of the agreements are attached to the agenda reports, so you can see what changes have been proposed. (International_Association_of_Firefighters; Management_Employees_Group; Confidential_Employees_Group, Chico_Employees_Association).

If you’ve never attended a council meeting before, please know that there are typically plenty of seats, and you can come and go as you like (in case you can’t make it until after 6:30 and/or really don’t want to hang around until 11pm!). It’s okay to just come and observe — no need to speak unless you are so inclined. If you do wish to address the Council, there are speaker cards in the back of the chambers, and it’s as easy as filling out two fields and placing it in a basket. (Do make sure your speaker cards are submitted to the City Clerk’s station before your item comes up, particularly if it is on the Consent Agenda or under Reports and Communications, since there may be no discussion whatsoever if there is no request to be heard.)

If you can’t attend the meeting, you can watch from home via live stream or at a later date on the video recording. Our permanent link to the Council Meeting page, along with an explanation of how it works, is here: Watch Council Meetings

Again, we urge you to get involved. This is your community, and being informed and engaged is crucial. The Council works for you, so make your voice heard. Write letters, attend meetings or watch from home, ask questions and make comments on our blog posts, and hold the elected officials accountable at the polls.

Thank you for your continued readership. Please also continue to share our posts with your family, neighbors, and friends. As always, we welcome your comments and questions.

Say, did we ever get to see the “chronology of events” that Goloff request Nakamura to prepare at the 10-1-13 meeting? It was supposed to address the issues y’all raised during Business From the Floor.

If it exists, we haven’t seen it. My guess is that there aren’t enough staffers with institutional memory or time who are left to get a project like that completed. Or the powers who be don’t like the answers, and have brushed it under the rug. We can submit a public records request for that.

If it exists, it hasn’t been made public. As Alicia mentioned, there is no one there with the knowledge of that project who could pull it together. Whomever receives that assignment would have to shuffle through a few years of project files to accurately complete a timeline.

I personally have been waiting to see if they will ask the responsible Consultant to put it together; which I believe would be a conflict of interest. To be continued, I suppose….